News

The epidemic of violence against trans people, especially trans women of color, shows no sign of slowing down. Alicia Garza, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter, joins the ACLU's Chase Strangio and NBC BLK contributor Danielle Moodie-Mills join to discuss this on the Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC.

Marlene Juarez worked as a nanny for a family near Boston, taking care of four children ranging in age from 6 months to 6 years old; she organized play dates, cooked, did laundry and cleaned a large house. Both parents worked full time and in some weeks asked Juarez to work as many as 60 or 70 hours. Juarez had recently emigrated from Honduras, and was afraid to complain. She couldn’t afford to lose her job. But, once, she requested a few hours off to deal with a personal matter — and in response, her employers docked her pay.

NDWA Special Projects Diretcor Alicia Garza has written a powerful response to the attack in Charleston at truthout.org:

We, as a country, in the face of even more Black lives taken way before their time, have a choice to make. It is no longer a question of whether or not racism exists, nor is it a question of whether or not racism is an epidemic that plagues our very existence. The choice we have to make is whether or not we are willing to take it on in a real way.

On Thursday, Oregon became the fifth state to sign a "domestic workers bill of rights" into law.

Senate Bill 552, the Oregon Domestic Workers' Protection Act, puts in place workplace protections for domestic workers such as house cleaners, housekeepers and nannies working in private homes. The provisions include overtime pay, periods of rest, paid personal time and protection against harassment.

The governor signed Senate Bill 552 on Wednesday extending provisions for overtime pay, rest periods, paid personal time off and protections against sexual harassment and retaliation to an estimated 10,000 domestic workers in Oregon.

The National Domestic Workers Alliance and Hand in Hand are launching a national Fair Care Pledge initiative with Care.com, which will ask the company's over 6 million employer users to become fair domestic employers by providing a living wage, paid time off and clear expectations. The pledge will go out to 1 million of their users on June 10. They will also provide families with tools and resources to meet those obligations. They unveiled it at the Clinton Global Initiative and the Former President Bill Clinton recognized the Fair Care Pledge.